The Posts You Read Most in 2013

India entered 2013 reeling with the gang rape and murder of a young student in December – a crime that swept the country with grief and unleashed a bout of soul-searching on the state of women in the world’s largest democracy. The year ended with a rookie political party — one born out of anticorruption protests that gripped India in 2011 — defeating political heavyweights in New Delhi.

As the new year begins, we take a look at the top 10 most-read pieces on India Real Time in 2013:

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#1. Indian Rhino Poachers Shot Dead:A post about one-horned rhinos, a species painstakingly brought back from the brink of extinction over the past century, was our top-read blog of 2013. In March, two poachers allegedly involved in killings rhinos were shot dead by forest guards in the northeastern state of Assam. Assam’s four national parks account for 80% of the world’s nearly 3,000 one-horned species.

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#2. The Problem With Delhi’s Rich Kids: In India’s capital, the children of the nouveau riche often get whatever they want, apart from happiness, a commentary on our blog read in August. The piece, our second-most read this year, elicited strong responses from India Real Time readers. For some, the blog spoke of a problem that is rarely addressed: malaise and mental health issues among Delhi’s young elite. Other readers had little sympathy for wealthy young people who suffer from depression and boredom.

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#3. Where Virginity Is For Sale in India: In April, we wrote about Koppal, an impoverished district in the southern state of Karnataka, where virginity is for sale. The piece, which chronicled the life of devadasis, or girls whose virginity is auctioned off to the highest bidder, was our third-most read of the year.

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#4. What Is a ‘Sexual Potency’ Test? In September, following the arrest of a 75-year-old godman on allegations of rape, we put together an explainer on India’s sexual potency test, which police often require senior citizens to undertake when probing charges of sex crimes against them.

#6. Air India’s Dreamliner Nightmare: Passengers aboard India’s beleaguered national carrier, Air India, continued to face jitters midair as one of its Dreamliner jets developed a crack on its outer windshield while landing in Melbourne in November. Another, meanwhile, received warnings of faulty brakes ahead of its arrival in New Delhi. Air India’s troubles with Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner aircraft was our sixth-most read for the year.

#8. A ‘Rape Map’ of India: In January, after the gang rape and murder of the young woman, our graphics team put out a map detailing the number of rape cases reported in each Indian state in 2012, as well as conviction rates for the crime across the country. The map, which was broadcast by some local television channels, was our most popular graphic in 2013.

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#9. Why I’m Not Speaking at Wharton:Sadanand Dhume, who was slated to be one of the speakers at the Wharton India Economic Forum in March, withdrew from the business school conference after the organizers’ canceled Narendra Modi’s scheduled keynote. In this piece, Mr. Dhume, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, explained his decision to pull out over the divisive politician.

Tsering Topgyal/Associated Press

#10. Live Blog — State Election Results: Four Indian states – New Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan – went to polls in late 2013. Wall Street Journal reporters live-blogged the results from offices of political parties pitched against one another, as well as offered commentary and analysis on challenges that lie ahead for the winners in each state.

Share your favorite India Real Time blogs for the year, along with suggestions on what you’d like to read from us in 2014. Click here to read the most-read posts of 2012 and here for 2011.

About India Real Time

India Real Time offers analysis and insights into the broad range of developments in business, markets, the economy, politics, culture, sports, and entertainment that take place every single day in the world’s largest democracy. Regular posts from Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires reporters around the country provide a unique take on the main stories in the news, shed light on what else mattered and why, and give global readers a snapshot of what Indians have been talking about all week. You can contact the editors at indiarealtime(at)wsj(dot)com.